Local News

Trial begins for 84-year-old in 1976 Marinette County killings

MARINETTE, Wis. -- Trial started Monday for an 84-year-old man accused of killing a Green Bay, Wis., couple at a campgrounds in Marinette County more than four decades ago.

Raymand Vannieuwenhoven is charged with two counts of first-degree murder -- a felony punishable by up to life in prison -- in the deaths of 25-year-old David Schuldes and 24-year-old Ellen Matheys on July 9, 1976.

"It started out as a weekend where two people who loved each other were going to go on a camping trip," Special Prosecutor Mark Williams said in his opening statement in Marinette County Circuit Court, telling the jury Schuldes' and Matheys' deaths were worse than those of any horror film they had seen.

"The evidence is going to show they didn't have a chance," Williams said.

According to the criminal complaint, Schuldes was fatally shot through the neck with a .30 caliber firearm as he waited for Matheys outside a bathroom at the McClintock Park campground in the Town of Silver Cliff. The shooter then either ordered or chased Matheys into a nearby wooded area, where she was sexually assaulted and, after being allowed to put some of her clothing back on, shot twice in the torso.

Though the case went cold, Marinette County detectives continued to have DNA from semen left in Matheys' shorts periodically analyzed to see if a possible match might surface, the complaint stated.

In 2018, investigators submitted evidence to Virginia-based Parabon Nanolabs, which traced the DNA to a specific couple with ties to the Green Bay area.

Further investigation led to Vannieuwenhoven, a widower living in Lakewood, Wis. A DNA sample obtained from Vannieuwenhoven in March 2019 proved to be a match, investigators claim.

"No one else in the world could have had that DNA profile but Ray," Williams said, adding a buccal swab taken after Vannieuwenhoven's arrest confirmed the match. "Literally, no one else in the world could have left that semen stain on Ellen Matheys' shorts."

Vannieuwenhoven originally also was charged with first-degree sexual assault, but that was dismissed in May 2019 because the statute of limitations had passed. There are no such limitations for homicide.

Williams also noted two witnesses claimed they heard a single gunshot while at the campground around the time Schuldes and Matheys were killed and later saw a man with a rifle leaving the campground. The witnesses did not get a good look at the man, but believed the rifle was a .30 caliber, Williams said.

Defense attorney Lee Schuchart told jurors he and fellow attorney Travis Crowell would not challenge that the semen found in Matheys' shorts belonged to anyone but Vannieuwenhoven.

"There's no dispute to that, but that's not what the state has to prove in this case," Schuchart said. "The state has to prove to each and every one of you beyond any reasonable doubt that Ray Vannieuwenhoven shot and killed these people."

While the prosecution often highlighted the DNA evidence in the case, Schuchart claimed there was little focus on the manner of the couple's deaths.

"Semen didn't kill these people," Schuchart said. "Bullets killed these people."

Schuchart said when law enforcement compared Vannieuwenhoven's .30-30 caliber rifle to bullet fragments at the crime site, they reportedly did not match.

"Ray had a .30-30 for as long as anyone could remember," Schuchart said, adding law enforcement officers investigated whether Vannieuwenhoven ever had another rifle.

"Not only is the state not going to introduce the murder weapon to you, you're not going to hear any evidence that Ray suddenly lost a .30-caliber weapon," Schuchart said.

One of the witnesses in the park described the man with the rifle as having medium-length hair, a mustache and being no older than 28. As a military man, Vannieuwenhoven kept his hair short and never wore a mustache, Schuchart said, adding Vannieuwenhoven was 39 years old in 1976.

The witness also claimed the man in the campground was walking toward a Plymouth car with a Michigan license plate, Schuchart said. Vannieuwenhoven drove a Ford at the time of the murders and has long been a Wisconsin resident.

"You have a connection to DNA in a pair of shorts, but you don't have a connection of Ray to the shooting." Schuchart told jurors. "That's a critical distinction to make in this case."

The trial resumes today and is expected to last two weeks.

It was delayed in March 2020 when a judge deemed Vannieuwenhoven incompetent to stand trial, declaring he was unable to understand court proceedings or assist in his own defense.

That ruling was lifted in November 2020 when he was found competent.